Welcome to chapter 3! How are you liking it? Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far- keep it up, you are my heroes ;) So anyway, please enjoy and let me know your thoughts. PS. Hidan is so badass. ;3

Chapter 3- Ritual at the dango shop

Hidan trod heavily on the ground, bored and desperately feeling the need for Mia to fulfil her promise. Was his life any more interesting? Absolutely. It would be hard for her, though, because how did you entertain a man who was so hard to thrill, just because he had no fear of injury or death? Getting his adrenaline pumping would be nigh impossible. He probably got his kicks from slaughtering innocent people, but it didn't matter to her. All these years in her situation had left her with little sympathy for the human race.

"Hey," she said suddenly. Hidan stopped dragging his feet and looked round. "Why don't we go somewhere cool to eat? I haven't eaten in so long, and I bet you need some food too."

"Fine. But don't suggest some crappy little place."

"Dango shop! Yes, I'm sure there has to be a dango shop somewhere along this valley path."

Hidan's expression turned from one of lethargy to amusement again, but he sighed and begrudgingly agreed to look for one. He'd been underground for a long time, so he was hungry, whether he knew it or not. As if in response to this, his belly rumbled loudly, causing Mia to giggle and realise her own belly was doing the same. Maybe eating sweets wasn't such a good idea for nourishment, but it didn't matter.

The sun was almost setting on the third day when a small building came into view. Mia sniffed the air and clapped her hands together in triumph.

"I knew it! Let's go."

She grabbed his wrist and dragged the now mildly irritated jashinist all the way to the building in the distance. His skin was still disconcertingly cold, and she couldn't help but finger her stitch work along his wrist and hand. He was like a mannequin, but a living, talking one with a nasty temper.
Before long and to Mia's delight, soon the two were sat on a bench outside the shop, clutching a couple of sticks of dango.

"How's yours?"

He sniffed. "It's too sweet. This place reeks of those bastards Deidara and Tobi's chakra, too." He caught her expression. "They're in the Akatsuki."

"You hunted demons, right?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"It is just tailed beasts they're after isn't it?"

"What the hell is your point?"

"…"

"Fine." He ate one whole and got to his feet. "Got to do a ritual now, anyway. Alright! Yeah! More blood to shed, all for Lord Jashin."

Mia nodded and finished up her own dango. Curiosity was mounting up inside her to actually see one of these rituals. If sewing together a dead body didn't faze her, not much else would. She licked her sweet lips and ambled after Hidan, who was tapping the blade of his 'sword' in anticipation and gripping his other fist tightly.

Hidan swung open the door to the shop.

"Hello again," the female owner said brightly. "How was it? I hope you enjoyed it."

"Don't you think we should at least pay her first?" Mia asked casually. "..Actually, we don't have any money. Woops."

The lady's face clouded with confusion. Mia watched as Hidan began to grin a wicked grin and lick his own lips, but it definitely wasn't because of the dango. He cried out and charged for the lady, slashing openly at her. He caught some blood, drew a circle around him on the floor; he licked the edge of his blade, taking in the scarlet liquid, and to Mia's amazement, his body turned black and white, into the image of an inverted skeleton.

The lady screamed, but it was muffled under the sound of Hidan's laughter. His face was lit up with a grin of ecstasy, his tongue still circling the blood round his lips. He then proceeded to take his blade again, and drive it directly into his shoulder.

"Hidan, what are you doing?" Mia cried.

"Yeah!" he shouted, as the lady collapsed, blood pouring from her own shoulder. Looking from one to the other, Mia finally grasped the situation. Whatever injury he suffered, she did too.
"Let's make this a slow one!"

"No!" she said. "If you finish this, you finish this now. It's bad enough that you got blood everywhere."

He hesitated, looked at her all over again, and dropped his head. After raising his blade once again, he drove it into his heart, and the lady's face drained of all colour. She fell face down and lay twitching for a few moments, before dying of blood loss on the floor of her shop.

Hidan then lay down himself, and splayed out on his back, breathing deeply.

This was the strangest thing Mia had ever seen. She tiptoed out of the way of the body's blood, and was standing directly above Hidan's head.

"Why do you feel the need to do this?"

"It's part of Jashin."

"But why?"

"They're the ones who gave me immortality. I can repay them like this."

"Is that the only reason? I want to know more!"

"Shut the hell up! I'm doing the ritual." He paused, and opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it again, and his face went oddly calm.

For the next hour, they were there in silence, with Mia watching Hidan's meditative face as he prayed to that god of his. She had a feeling that she'd touched a nerve when asking about his reasons for following Jashin. It wasn't that she was horrified by the blood, or the brutal murders… but what roused her curiosity more was why anyone would want to join a cult like that. After some thought, she realised that maybe, if she had encountered a religion who offered her immortality, that she might have joined them too.

Hidan at last rose and stood up. He cleared his throat and walked out of the shop without a word, Mia stumbling after him, determined to find out more.